


27 steps to seduce a crow

by relationshipcrimes



Series: prompt fics 3 [3]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29479467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relationshipcrimes/pseuds/relationshipcrimes
Summary: A handy bullet-pointed list on how to flirt with, seduce, and keep your local Akechi Goro.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: prompt fics 3 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164914
Comments: 12
Kudos: 150





	27 steps to seduce a crow

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt "crow" from @coldsteelcrow on twitter

1\. Trust him.

  * Note to self: He will betray you.
  * Trust him anyway. You know he hates being mocked. Petty, snide revenges aren't manipulative if you do actually trust him.



2\. Get shot.

3\. Fall in love.

  * Note to self: This is a good time to understand that falling in love doesn't always feel like falling in love. Sometimes it feels like focus: The whole world narrowed down to a new center, the bullet that carved a new line through your head, from gun to the wall behind you in a clean, straight shot. Your life spins on that new axis forever afterwards. It is neither good nor bad; it's not always happy; it is not always explainable; it's just the new world order.
  * Sometimes it feels like admiration, and a little bit of hatred. A respect for someone you know outclasses you, someone that you don't want to let down. You could never live with yourself if you didn't have his eyes on you.
  * Sometimes it feels like a hundred questions all at once. Why did he do it? Why won't he listen? What makes up the steel in his resolve? You want to know everything. You want to understand what makes his brain work from the inside out. You want to slip inside him and become him, see the world from his eyes, and love the two of you at once.
  * Sometimes it feels like betrayal. You didn't know you wanted to be something to him until you thought you weren't.
  * You won't understand this. Not at the time. 



4\. Let him choose to die.

  * You will regret this one for as long as you live. In fact, the more time goes on, the more you regret it. The longer he lives, the more you regret it. The more he smiles, the more birthdays he has, the more days he holds your hand without fear, the more you will think: _I almost let him throw this away_.



5\. Pray he comes back.

6\. Cry when he comes back to you on December 25th.

  * Note: Do not let him see you cry. Nobody is allowed to see you cry, firstly, unless you can explain it to yourself. Crying is the sort of thing you're allowed to do if you've just found out that he will betray you, which you didn't do; crying is the sort of thing you're allowed to do if you've just been drugged and beaten and abandoned and left to wonder if you'll die at the end of the night, which you didn't do; crying is the sort of thing you're allowed to do if you've just lost a boy who meant something to you in the locked engine room, which you didn't do. These things make sense to cry over. Seeing him again isn't something you're supposed to cry over. You don't subscribe to the idea of happy tears. The only explanation that you have is that you are grieving for a time when you didn't want him so much.
  * Secondly, he specifically is not allowed to see you cry. He might understand it better than you do.



7\. When he proposes to escape Maruki's reality together, accept his deals with caution.

  * Note: Not because you don't trust him, but because he doesn't trust that you could trust him again.
  * And because you don't have it in you to trust him out of spite, anymore. It stopped being an ironic mockery when you started dreaming about what his fruity mocktails tasted like on his mouth.



8\. Let him die again.

  * Note: You will regret this one less. It becomes easier over time. You start to get used to letting him go. You try to make this one hurt as much as the first time, but you can't make it; that's how you know that you can survive just about anything. You could get used to just about anything. That's not always a good thing.



9\. Think about the phrase, "If you love something, you should let it go. if it comes back to you, it was always yours."

  * You now have enough personal experience to say that that's fucking bullshit. 
  * One of these days, you think you should make _him_ let you go. See how it likes it.



10\. Do not cry when he comes back. Do not kiss him when he comes back.

  * You want to. Preferably both at once. You've never been one to show a lot of emotions on your face and sometimes you think they slip out in other ways, like liquid seeping through the cracks, and you want him to know that he was missed, that someone wanted him hoome, that you sort of want to kill him and that he's on thin fucking ice if he ever pulls this again because you won't be nearly so happy the next time, just more and more tired, so he better make this one count. You want to throw all caution to the wind and show him your heart the way he showed you his in the engine room of Shido's palace: _Look at how ugly and frail and leaking it is. It's full of soft skin and vital arteries, and that's why I keep it hidden. Please treat it gently_.
  * He can't handle that. You're virtually certain it'd make him turn tail and run the other way on the spot.
  * Maybe you really don't trust him after all.



11\. Let sit for two years.

12\. See him at least once a week.

  * You will see him almost every day, but it's good to keep your expectations low, if only to see if he will meet you in the middle.
  * He will.
  * Because it turns out being friends is easy. You text for hours about nothing. You argue about big and small things and always come back together. Over time, you come up with jokes. You make him laugh. It's easy to imagine this going on forever: A wish to be friends—real friends—without Shido's conspiracy looming over his head, and now it's true. Except that wishing for a past that could never be, now you have a future all of your own.
  * Do not forget the anniversary of his mother's death.



13\. Wait for him to kiss you.

  * Note: _Most_ of this process is waiting, isn't it? You can't tell if you're getting very good at it, or getting much, much worse, because you're getting impatient.
  * You can't get impatient. There's too much on the line. You _know_ that he'll leave if he has to. If he even wants to. You're playing the long game.
  * It's not manipulative if it's how you really feel.



14\. Actually, get fed up with waiting anyway. Get outrageously fucking drunk and confess while lying facedown on his stomach.

  * It's not manipulative if it's how you really feel.



15\. Have the best kiss of your life.

  * He will complain it was the worst kiss of _his_ life, because your mouth tasted like shit beer and you coughed into his mouth. Tell him that he is welcome to try again as many times as he likes.
  * Anyway, he kissed back.



16\. Lose contact with him for three months.

  * Note: It will be dramatic until it isn't. It's not like he does anything by halves: He disappears overnight. Then when you pin him down, he asks for time and space. He sounds furious when he says it, like you've insulted him personally. He says "I need to think about it" like he already knows what the answer is and that the answer is No. But even the drama of going from almost living in each others' pockets to radio silence will become normal over time. You graduate while he's still in radio silence.
  * The anniversary of his mother's death passes. Do not forget it. Send him a text. Do not expect a response.



17\. Don't mention it when he comes back.

  * Don't scare him off. Even if you are pissed.
  * He already knows you're pissed. He's the most pissed off at himself; you don't need to belabor the point.
  * You wonder how many more times this is going to go on.



18\. Do mention it when he doesn't mention it. Reassure him that you were not a) insulting him, b) mocking him, c) pitying him, or d) making a drunken bad decision. Yes, you meant it. Yes, you still feel that way. No, you just thought that if he wasn't such a coward that he'd run away from his own feelings.

  * Look for the moment his eyes narrow.
  * Now you've got him.
  * It's not manipulative if it's how you really feel.



19\. Start the best relationship of your life and immediately forget all your reservations.

  * Note: Do not call it a relationship. Also do not call it the best one, in case he gets any ideas about how he should ruin it. Do not mention that you're deep in the honeymoon phase and that you've forgotten all your reservations. Do not act like you have anything less than one million and one reservations about being anywhere near him. You don't know what he'll do.
  * Realize you really don't trust him.
  * Maybe the better question is: Why did you trust the boy who shot you in the forehead in the first place?



20\. Let sit for two years.

21\. Cry when he tells you that he loves you for the first time.

  * This one is just embarrassing, but there's nothing that you can do about it. Your worst and most terrible trait is that you're a bleeding heart and someone who cares too much. You never thought that you'd show anything but your most hardened face to someone who tried to kill you, but you want, for once, to show a soft underbelly to someone and believe that it will be treated gently.
  * It's a little bit funny when he panics, though.



22\. Do not forget anniversaries.

  * He never forgets anniversaries, so you don't have an option if you don't want him to outpace you in your own relationship.
  * Do not forget the anniversary of his mother's death.
  * Do not forget the anniversary that you got shot. whenever possible, celebrate it. whenever possible, make a joke about it. remind him that you haven't forgotten it, because he won't, but remind him that there is nothing to forgive. you understand why he had to do it.
  * It is not manipulative to ease him into forgiving himself this way if it is how you really feel. if could even be called communication.



23\. Co-sign a lease on an apartment with him.

  * Let him run when you first suggest it.
  * Call Ann ahead of time so you can sleep on her couch while he refuses to give you an answer.
  * Ask Futaba to talk to him so she can bully him into not overthinking co-signing a lease.
  * Note: Do _not_ call Futaba ahead of time or he will accuse you of setting him up.
  * Note x2: You are setting him up but it's not manipulative if it is how you really feel.



24\. Move into the apartment and let the relationship sit for five years.

  * Let him be weird about hiding all his possessions under the bed.
  * Let him be weird about keeping weapons within arm's reach.
  * Let him be weird about the black-out curtains.
  * Let him pretend he doesn't say your name during his worst nightmares.
  * Let him disappear for weeks at a time.
  * Let him come back to you.
  * You're not entirely sure why he does these things—or rather, you know why, but you don't really understand. But that's fine. You are letting him set the terms and conditions; you are letting the relationship move at the pace he sets; you are letting him feel in control.
  * Even when he isn't.
  * One day, he will wake up and realize, like you, that he will grieve a time when he didn't want you so much. Neither of you have been in control for a long, long time. Somewhere along the way, you handed it over to each other, and decided: This is the person who'll make or break me.
  * Does this mean you trust him now?



25\. Propose.

26\. Let him run.

27\. Pray he comes back.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter [@p5crimes](https://twitter.com/p5crimes)  
> tumblr [@akechicrimes](http://akechicrimes.tumblr.com)


End file.
